NCAA Basketball: 10 bold predictions for 2022-23 season

Jon Scheyer will have to “bench” a pair of five-star freshmen

Even though Duke has gone from Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski to the new head coach Jon Scheyer, the recruiting didn’t take a dip for the team. The program has the No. 1 freshmen class, led by four “five-star” prospects. It would’ve been five but Tyrese Proctor reclassified to join them.

Along with Dariq Whitehead, the Blue Devils have three frontcourt players that were five-star prospects in forward Mark Mitchell, as well as centers, Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively. Both centers were consensus top-5 players so rightfully so, are projected to together in the frontcourt. The problem is that there are questions as to how they’ll fit, especially if Filipowski struggles to stretch the floor with his shooting.

Mitchell is a combo forward that has potential but may take a while to be consistently effective on the offensive end. One guy who is ready is Ryan Young, a 6’10 transfer forward from Northwestern who was highly effective in limited minutes off the bench and has been the most impressive frontcourt player for Duke in the preseason. It was thought that he was coming in for depth purposes off the bench but with Lively injured and potentially missing a couple of games to start the season, Young could start as well.

If Young becomes a starter, then two of the three five-star freshmen will have to come off the bench for Duke. Of course, if the team wins then there won’t be many issues but with a first-year head coach and the recruiting politics that come with five-star players, there could be an impact down the road with future classes. But if Young continues to impress, that’ll be something that Coach Scheyer will have to deal with in the future.